For Release: Friday, June 23, 2017
17-847-ATL
SOUTHEAST INFORMATION OFFICE: Atlanta, Ga.
Technical information: (404) 893-4222 [email protected]
Media contact:
(404) 893-4220
www.bls.gov/regions/southeast
Occupational Employment and Wages in Montgomery – May 2016
Workers in the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area had an average (mean) hourly wage of $19.55 in
May 2016, about 18 percent below the nationwide average of $23.86, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. Regional Commissioner Janet S. Rankin noted that, after testing for statistical significance, 20 of
the 22 major occupational groups had significantly lower wages than their respective national averages,
including construction and extraction; sales and related; and transportation and material moving.
When compared to the nationwide distribution, local employment was more highly concentrated in 6 of the
22 occupational groups, including production; transportation and material moving; and protective service.
Conversely, nine groups had employment shares significantly below their national representation, including
management; construction and extraction; and education, training, and library. (See table A and box note at
end of release.)
Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the
Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016
Percent of total employment
Major occupational group
Total, all occupations ............................................
Management .....................................................
Business and financial operations.....................
Computer and mathematical .............................
Architecture and engineering ............................
Life, physical, and social science ......................
Community and social service...........................
Legal..................................................................
Education, training, and library..........................
Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media.
Healthcare practitioners and technical ..............
Healthcare support ............................................
Protective service ..............................................
Food preparation and serving related ...............
Building and grounds cleaning and
maintenance......................................................
Personal care and service.................................
Sales and related ..............................................
Office and administrative support......................
Farming, fishing, and forestry............................
Construction and extraction...............................
Installation, maintenance, and repair ................
Production .........................................................
Note: See footnotes at end of table.
United States
Mean hourly wage
Montgomery
United States
Montgomery
Percent
difference (1)
100.0
5.1
5.2
3.0
1.8
0.8
1.4
0.8
6.2
1.4
5.9
2.9
2.4
9.2
100.0
3.7*
4.6*
2.4*
1.7
0.7*
1.2*
0.9*
5.4*
1.1*
5.7
2.3*
3.2*
8.9
$23.86
56.74
36.09
42.25
40.53
35.06
22.69
50.95
26.21
28.07
38.06
14.65
22.03
11.47
$19.55*
49.65*
32.69*
35.24*
33.17*
28.13*
23.55
45.01*
20.49*
20.15*
31.14*
12.44*
17.53*
9.88*
-18
-12
-9
-17
-18
-20
4
-12
-22
-28
-18
-15
-20
-14
3.2
3.5*
13.47
11.63*
-14
3.2
10.4
15.7
0.3
4.0
3.9
6.5
3.3
10.4
15.6
0.3
3.0*
4.3*
10.2*
12.74
19.50
17.91
13.37
23.51
22.45
17.88
11.33*
15.68*
16.10*
12.99
18.04*
21.58*
15.55*
-11
-20
-10
-3
-23
-4
-13
Table A. Occupational employment and wages by major occupational group, United States and the
Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, and measures of statistical significance, May 2016 - Continued
Percent of total employment
Major occupational group
Transportation and material moving ..................
United States
Mean hourly wage
Montgomery
6.9
7.7*
United States
Montgomery
17.34
Percent
difference (1)
13.98*
-19
Footnotes:
(1) A positive percent difference measures how much the mean wage in the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area is above the national mean
wage, while a negative difference reflects a lower wage.
* The percent share of employment or mean hourly wage for this area is significantly different from the national average of all areas at the 90percent confidence level.
One occupational group—production—was chosen to illustrate the diversity of data available for any of the
22 major occupational categories. Montgomery had 16,800 jobs in production, accounting for 10.2 percent
of local area employment, significantly higher than the 6.5-percent share nationally. The average hourly
wage for this occupational group locally was $15.55, significantly below the national wage of $17.88.
Some of the larger detailed occupations within the production group included team assemblers (4,470),
production workers' helpers (1,850), and inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers (1,360). Among
the higher paying jobs were first-line supervisors of production and operating workers, and paper goods
machine setters, operators, and tenders, with mean hourly wages of $25.69 and $24.10, respectively. At the
lower end of the wage scale were laundry and dry-cleaning workers ($10.14) and electrical and electronic
equipment assemblers ($10.99). (Detailed occupational data for production are presented in table 1; for a
complete listing of detailed occupations available go to www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_33860.htm.)
Location quotients allow us to explore the occupational make-up of a metropolitan area by comparing the
composition of jobs in an area relative to the national average. (See table 1.) For example, a location
quotient of 2.0 indicates that an occupation accounts for twice the share of employment in the area than it
does nationally. In the Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, above-average concentrations of
employment were found in some of the occupations within the production group. For instance, metal and
plastic extruding and drawing machine setters, operators, and tenders were employed at 3.8 times the
national rate in Montgomery, and production workers' helpers, at 3.7 times the U.S. average. On the other
hand, metal and plastic cutting, punching, and press machine setters, operators, and tenders had a location
quotient of 1.1 in Montgomery, indicating that this particular occupation’s local and national employment
shares were similar.
These statistics are from the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey, a federal-state cooperative
program between BLS and State Workforce Agencies, in this case, the Alabama Department of Labor.
Note on Occupational Employment Statistics Data
A value that is statistically different from another does not necessarily mean that the difference has
economic or practical significance. Statistical significance is concerned with the ability to make
confident statements about a universe based on a sample. It is entirely possible that a large difference
between two values is not significantly different statistically, while a small difference is, since both the
size and heterogeneity of the sample affect the relative error of the data being tested.
2
Technical Note
The Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) survey is a semiannual mail survey measuring occupational
employment and wage rates for wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments in the United States.
The OES data available from BLS include cross-industry occupational employment and wage estimates for
the nation; over 650 areas, including states and the District of Columbia, metropolitan statistical areas
(MSAs), metropolitan divisions, nonmetropolitan areas, and territories; national industry-specific estimates
at the NAICS sector, 3-, 4-, and selected 5- and 6-digit industry levels, and national estimates by ownership
across all industries and for schools and hospitals. OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm.
OES estimates are constructed from a sample of about 1.2 million establishments. Each year, two
semiannual panels of approximately 200,000 sampled establishments are contacted, one panel in May and
the other in November. Responses are obtained by mail, Internet or other electronic means, email,
telephone, or personal visit. The May 2016 estimates are based on responses from six semiannual panels
collected over a 3-year period: May 2016, November 2015, May 2015, November 2014, May 2014, and
November 2013. The overall national response rate for the six panels, based on the 50 states and the District
of Columbia, is 73 percent based on establishments and 69 percent based on weighted sampled
employment. The unweighted employment of sampled establishments across all six semiannual panels
represents approximately 58 percent of total national employment. The sample in the Montgomery
Metropolitan Statistical Area included 1,749 establishments with a response rate of 73 percent. For more
information about OES concepts and methodology, go to www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
The May 2016 OES estimates are based on the 2010 Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system
and the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Information about the 2010 SOC is
available on the BLS website at www.bls.gov/soc and information about the 2012 NAICS is available at
www.bls.gov/bls/naics.htm.
Metropolitan area definitions
The substate area data published in this release reflect the standards and definitions established by the U.S.
Office of Management and Budget.
The Montgomery, Ala. Metropolitan Statistical Area includes Autauga, Elmore, Lowndes, and
Montgomery Counties.
Additional information
OES data are available on our regional web page at www.bls.gov/regions/southeast. Answers to frequently
asked questions about the OES data are available at www.bls.gov/oes/oes_ques.htm. Detailed technical
information about the OES survey is available in our Survey Methods and Reliability Statement on the BLS
website at www.bls.gov/oes/current/methods_statement.pdf.
Information in this release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. Voice
phone: (202) 691-5200; Federal Relay Service: (800) 877-8339.
3
Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation,
Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016
Occupation (1)
Production occupations ................................................
First-line supervisors of production and operating
workers .....................................................................
Electrical and electronic equipment assemblers ......
Structural metal fabricators and fitters......................
Fiberglass laminators and fabricators ......................
Team assemblers .....................................................
Assemblers and fabricators, all other .......................
Bakers ......................................................................
Butchers and meat cutters .......................................
Food batchmakers....................................................
Computer-controlled machine tool operators, metal
and plastic ................................................................
Extruding and drawing machine setters, operators,
and tenders, metal and plastic .................................
Rolling machine setters, operators, and tenders,
metal and plastic ......................................................
Cutting, punching, and press machine setters,
operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ................
Grinding, lapping, polishing, and buffing machine
tool setters, operators, and tenders, metal and
plastic .......................................................................
Machinists ................................................................
Molding, coremaking, and casting machine setters,
operators, and tenders, metal and plastic ................
Multiple machine tool setters, operators, and
tenders, metal and plastic ........................................
Tool and die makers .................................................
Welders, cutters, solderers, and brazers..................
Welding, soldering, and brazing machine setters,
operators, and tenders .............................................
Prepress technicians and workers ...........................
Printing press operators ...........................................
Laundry and dry-cleaning workers ...........................
Sewing machine operators.......................................
Tailors, dressmakers, and custom sewers ...............
Cabinetmakers and bench carpenters .....................
Sawing machine setters, operators, and tenders,
wood .........................................................................
Woodworking machine setters, operators, and
tenders, except sawing.............................................
Power distributors and dispatchers ..........................
Water and wastewater treatment plant and system
operators ..................................................................
Petroleum pump system operators, refinery
operators, and gaugers ............................................
Crushing, grinding, and polishing machine setters,
operators, and tenders .............................................
Grinding and polishing workers, hand ......................
Mixing and blending machine setters, operators, and
tenders .....................................................................
Cutting and slicing machine setters, operators, and
tenders .....................................................................
Extruding, forming, pressing, and compacting
machine setters, operators, and tenders..................
Inspectors, testers, sorters, samplers, and weighers .
Dental laboratory technicians ...................................
Packaging and filling machine operators and
tenders .....................................................................
Employment
Level
(2)
Location quotient
Mean wages
(3)
Annual (4)
Hourly
16,800
1.6
$15.55
$32,350
1,010
1.4
25.69
53,430
40
190
60
4,470
400
170
130
0.1
2.2
2.7
3.4
1.5
0.8
0.8
(5)
(5)
10.99
14.73
14.28
15.27
14.77
14.19
13.86
12.28
22,860
30,640
29,710
31,760
30,730
29,520
28,820
25,550
90
0.5
21.25
44,200
320
3.8
14.48
30,120
40
1.3
17.14
35,640
260
1.1
13.90
28,920
50
0.6
16.77
34,870
360
0.8
18.31
38,090
240
1.4
16.32
33,950
(5)
(5)
16.19
33,680
40
580
0.4
1.3
21.62
15.19
44,970
31,590
40
0.8
18.54
38,570
(5)
(5)
190
310
40
0.9
1.3
0.2
32,800
31,310
21,090
23,040
27,640
32,360
(5)
(5)
90
0.8
15.77
15.05
10.14
11.08
13.29
15.56
80
1.3
(5)
(5)
80
0.9
11.99
24,930
50
4.0
32.89
68,400
90
0.7
19.80
41,180
(5)
(5)
20.16
41,940
160
4.7
15.48
32,190
30
1.0
11.25
23,390
210
1.4
(5)
(5)
30
0.5
20.76
43,190
190
2.3
16.88
35,110
1,360
90
2.2
2.0
14.51
14.47
30,170
30,090
290
0.6
13.95
29,010
Note: See footnotes at end of table.
4
Table 1. Employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics survey, by occupation,
Montgomery Metropolitan Statistical Area, May 2016 - Continued
Occupation (1)
Coating, painting, and spraying machine setters,
operators, and tenders .............................................
Painters, transportation equipment ..........................
Painting, coating, and decorating workers ...............
Molders, shapers, and casters, except metal and
plastic .......................................................................
Paper goods machine setters, operators, and
tenders .....................................................................
Helpers--production workers ....................................
Production workers, all other....................................
Employment
Level
(2)
Location quotient
Mean wages
(3)
Annual (4)
Hourly
90
0.9
13.79
28,680
100
80
1.5
4.2
21.70
11.93
45,140
24,810
60
1.3
11.14
23,170
150
1.4
24.10
50,140
1,850
3.7
(5)
(5)
10.31
13.44
21,440
27,960
Footnotes:
(1) For a complete listing of all detailed occupations in the Montgomery, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area, see www.bls.gov/oes/current/
oes_33860.htm
(2) Estimates for detailed occupations do not sum to the totals because the totals include occupations not shown separately. Estimates do not
include self-employed workers.
(3) The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient
greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the
occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.
(4) Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a "year-round, full-time" hours figure of 2,080 hours; for those
occupations where there is not an hourly mean wage published, the annual wage has been directly calculated from the reported survey data.
(5) Estimate not released.
5